New measures are aimed at blocking access to offshore venues. Country has already banned domestic digital-currency exchanges.

China is opening a new front in its battle against cryptocurrencies, targeting platforms that allow the nation’s investors to trade digital assets on overseas exchanges, people familiar with the matter said. Read more + video.

The alliance between Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and its de facto partner, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), has extended to an unlikely realm: the idea to develop Turkey's own bitcoin.

Amid bitcoin’s meteoric rise last year, the Turkish government had taken an unwelcoming stance toward the cryptocurrency.Read more.

The Pentagon admits it used NGO reports on alleged recent chemical attacks in Syria and cannot confirm if they even took place. The lack of evidence, however, did not get in the way of the latest Russia blame game galore.

Russia was predictably the target of a barrage of accusations from the West after reports claimed that several people in the Damascus suburb of East Ghouta, which is controlled by militant groups, suffered symptoms consistent with exposure to chlorine gas on Sunday. Read more.

February 26, 2018

It has always been assumed that a large number of ICOs will fail, be it at the fundraising stage or when it comes to delivering the actual project. It’s hard to settle on a precise figure, however, as most dubious ICOs don’t exit scam: they slowly tiptoe away, like a sneak thief rather than a smash-and-grab robber.

Having completed an extensive study into last year’s crowdsales, news.Bitcoin.com can report that 46% of them are effectively dead already – despite raising over $104 million. Read more.

The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) boosted its holdings of gold by almost 20 metric tons last month, with reserves reaching 1,857 tons. It has increased its holdings every month since March 2015.

Russia is now among the top five gold holders after surpassing China, which reportedly holds 1,843 tons. Over the last 15 years, Moscow and Beijing have been aggressively accumulating gold reserves to cut their dependence on the US dollar. Read more.

A daily humanitarian pause will be established in East Ghouta, Syria, starting from February 27, the Russian Defense Ministry has said. That will give civilians an opportunity to flee the fighting areas.

“As ordered by the Russian president, a daily humanitarian pause from 09:00 to 14:00 (local time) is being introduced starting February 27 to... Read more.

February 24, 2018

In 2017, we see video surveillance continuing its growth trend for security, as well as for retail and traffic management applications and in support of the wider IoT trend

Industry analyst IHS projects video surveillance will capture nearly 6000 Petabytes of data in 2017, and by 2019 3.3 trillion hours of surveillance video will be captured daily. Video is also being retained longer for many reasons, including for use as evidence by law enforcement or to use with advanced analytics in retail environments.

Based on our interactions with customers and partners, we anticipate a number of key developments. Read more.

Russia's top diplomat describes al-Qaeda-linked Jabhat Fateh al-Sham formerly known as Nusra Front as the main problem in Syria’s Eastern Ghouta, criticizing the US-led coalition for NOT targeting the terror group.

Sergei Lavrov was speaking during a joint press conference alongside his Uzbek counterpart Abdulaziz Kamilov in Moscow. Lavrov also accused the U-S of seeking to partition Syria, saying the Astana peace process led by Iran, Russia and Turkey hinders Washington’s efforts in that regard.

He also questioned the effectiveness of the United Nations Security Council resolution on a 30-day truce in Syria. The Russian foreign minister said there are no guarantees that anti-Damascus militants will abide by the ceasefire.

Even as Russia stands accused of meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, its national capital is taking a leadership role in making democracy more transparent.

Using an existing program called Active Citizen, the city of Moscow has been allowing residents to cast votes for measures ranging from the name of their new metro train to the color of the seats in a new sports arena. But in an effort to soothe people's concerns over whether to trust the city in its vote counting, it's added a private version of the ethereum blockchain to that project's architecture. Read more.

Yes, America interferes in elections all the time. And yes, the Russian ad buys happened after the election. And yes, the DNC really did rig the primaries for Hillary. But if you believe the truth then you're a dirty Russian!Read more.

While financial regulators across the world are cracking down on bitcoin, Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) has decided to encourage digital currencies by issuing guidelines on initial coin offerings (ICOs).

According to the regulator, Switzerland has recently seen a sharp growth in the number of upcoming ICOs planned to be launched in the country, as well as numerous enquiries about cryptocurrency regulation. Read more.

February 17, 2018

A senior Iranian official has said that constant cooperation among Iran, Iraq and Syria will not allow the US to wield influence in Kurdish regions.

According to the Iraqi local TV network al-Beladi, Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior advisor to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, made the remarks at a meeting with Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari in Baghdad on Friday. Read more.

While Poland has decided to outlaw any claims that their countrymen participated in the extermination of the Jews, Israel continues to ignore the Armenian genocide

The Israelis have been mighty pissed off with the Polish government these past few days. I don’t blame them. In fact – and I’m not referring to the racist, extremist military occupation government of Benjamin Netanyahu – the Israeli people and Jews around the world are quite right to be enraged at Poland’s latest Holocaust denialism. Read more.

February 15, 2018

Reporting from the Gaza Strip, journalist and best-selling author Max Blumenthal says Netanyahu's domestic corruption case has not even registered to a besieged Palestinian population under Israeli blockade.

Hidden by the fog of the ongoing oil market volatility and the Turkish adventures in Syria, OPEC leader Saudi Arabia has been cementing its geopolitical position for years.

In Riyadh meetings this week between Saudi and Russian officials, major energy deals were sealed, changing the regional constellation dramatically. At the same time, the geopolitical shift of the century now starts to bear fruit. Read more.

On June 5th, 2017, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Egypt imposed a blockade on Qatar - closing their land, air and sea borders with it - accusing it of funding "terrorism" and fomenting regional instability.

The Saudi, Emirati and Bahraini governments told their citizens to return from Qatar. They also asked Qatari citizens who were visiting, studying or living in their respective countries, to leave for Qatar within 14 days.

February 14, 2018

The Russian embassy released a statement criticizing the Netherlands following Minister Halbe Zijlstra of Foreign Affairs admitting that he lied about attending a meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin in 2006.

The embassy accuses the Netherlands of "persistently" propagating an image of Russia having aggressive intentions to the Dutch public. "As we can see, this is the reason behind this whole story with the alleged meeting between Minister Zijlstra and President Putin", the statement, in broadcaster NOS' possession, reads. Read more.

Dutch Foreign Minister Halbe Zijlstra has resigned, a day after he admitted lying about overhearing Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.

In 2016 Zijlstra alleged Putin had in 2006 expressed ambitions to create a “Greater Russia.”
The official admitted that his credibility had been damaged by the ongoing scandal to such an extent that his position had become untenable. Read more.

The Bank of England announced plans to raise interest rates to combat inflation, but the actual effect will be to slow its economy and raise unemployment in light of a phantom threat, explains economist Mark Weisbrot.

Trump's infrastructure privatization plan is a hat trick that optimistically turns $200 billion into $1.5 trillion, is designed to eliminate the public sector and to bankrupt cities and states, says economist Michael Hudson.

Washington could soon receive the "Ottoman slap," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned, while also stating that all members of NATO are equal with the US.

While speaking to the ruling Justice and Development (AK) party in Ankara on Tuesday, Erdogan referenced a recent remark by Lt. Gen. Paul E. Funk, the top US commander in the US-led coalition against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL), who said that Turkey would face a sharp response if it struck Manbij, Syria. Read more.

PARIS (Reuters) - President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday that “France will strike” if chemical weapons are used against civilians in the Syrian conflict in violation of international treaties, but that he had not yet seen proof this was the case.

Macron said last May that the use of chemical weapons would represent a “red line”. Read more.

The United States dismisses claims by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Washington and Tel Aviv are in talks for “annexation” of Palestinian lands, grabbed by the regime for construction of settlements.

The White House made the announcement Monday in a rare show of discord between Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump. Read more + video.

February 13, 2018

Russia’s Center for Reconciliation in Syria says it's been warned that Jabhat Al-Nusra terrorists brought in chlorine containers to a local village, where they aimed to work with the White Helmets to stage “a provocation.”

Late on Monday, the center received a phone call from a resident of the village of Serakab in Idlib province about the planned incident. Read more.

Russian President Vladimir Putin described the imposition of restrictions on Russia as a deadlock solution, which is likely to lead to losses for those who introduced them.

In his speech at the meeting of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, Putin expressed hope that the West would soon "get bored with sanctions policy" and the relations with Russia would normalize. Read more.

A high-ranking Russian official has accused the U-S military of allowing Daesh terrorists - who have been defeated in Syria and Iraq - to infiltrate Afghanistan.

The Russian envoy for Afghanistan says various witness accounts indicate that the terrorists are often transferred to Afghanistan by helicopters. Zamir Kabulov added that because the U-S and NATO fully control the skies over Afghanistan, there is every reason to believe they have a hand in the transfer, or at least refuse to confront such flights.

In 2001, the US and its allies invaded Afghanistan under the pretext of 'war on terror'. Some 17 years on, terrorism is still growing in Afghanistan. The Daesh terrorist group has recently established a foothold in eastern and northern Afghanistan and stepped up its attacks against civilian targets across the country.

February 9, 2018

Contrary to what its multi-million dollar international PR campaign would have you believe, the “White Helmets” are not a group of volunteer search-and-rescue workers that sprang spontaneously out of the Syrian soil.

When you peel back the layers of foreign financing and reveal the foreign intelligence operatives and murky lobbying groups at the heart of the organization, what you find is that the White Helmets are, in fact, a propaganda construct. Read more.

CNN, MSNBC, and more corporate news networks hire former top U.S. government officials as analysts, who call for a more belligerent foreign policy, Ben Norton reports. Americans frequently boast of how free and independent their press ostensibly is.

Overlooking the fact that, according to the watchdog group Reporters Without Borders, media freedoms in the United States come in at a measly 43rd place globally, some of the liberties that do indeed exist are being whittled down. Read more.

The host of RT’s ‘Cryptolium’ Miguel Francis-Santiago travels to the World Blockchain Economic Forum in Singapore, where he tries to figure out what’s wrong with the price of bitcoin and if it’s bubble is about to burst.

He met with two speakers from the forum: Miko Matsumura of the world’s largest crypto fund, Pantera Foundation, and Tone Vays, the world’s most accurate bitcoin price predictor.

February 8, 2018

RAMAT GAN, Israel (Reuters) - Israel’s diamond exchange is turning to digital currencies to inject new life into a marketplace long ruled by cash and backroom handshakes, but it must first persuade traditionally conservative players that the technology can work.

One of the world’s largest diamond centers, the exchange hopes its virtual currency will make trading more efficient and less opaque. Read more + video.

Cryptocurrency will make a huge number of people fabulously rich, whilst choking the life out of the human race.

At this point, the amount of utterly baseless, contradictory propaganda, mass hysteria, and just flat out insanity the ruling classes have demanded they swallow is more than any human mind, no matter how medicated, could possibly handle.

For the past two years, Vanessa Beeley has been doing on-the-ground reporting in Syria exposing the lies of the NATO powers and their terrorist proxies.

Her work on the White Helmets in particular has drawn the ire of the warmongers and their media mouthpieces. Today we talk to Beeley about the true nature of the White Helmets and the well-funded PR campaign that seeks to defend them. Read more.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been holed up in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London for over five years.

A UK court looking into whether authorities should drop any action against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange for breaching bail terms in 2012 has adjourned, and the presiding judge said she will issue her ruling on Feb. 13. Read more.

February 6, 2018

The EU is looking to accelerate its expansion into the Balkans. On Tuesday, the European Commission will discuss a plan to bring Serbia and Montenegro into the bloc by 2025, followed by four more countries.

The staunchly pro-NATO Bilderberg Group has invited Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic to attend its next next invitation-only conference in June in Italy – in what looks like a tribute to her Atlanticist credentials.

Serbia's Prime Minister, Ana Brnabic, is the only person from the Western Balkans so far to have received an invitation to this year's Bilderberg group meeting from June 7 to 10 June in Turin, Italy. Read more.

Syria has dismissed US chemical attack claims, calling the use of such weapons a crime against humanity.

Speaking at a U-N Security Council session, the acting charge d’affaires of Syria’s permanent delegation at the world body rejected the U-S claims as false and cheap. Munzer Munzer said Damascus supports any action taken by the UN to investigate the use of chemical weapons in Syria.

Munzer noted that Washington uses the chemical issue whenever it realizes that terrorist groups are in trouble in the face any progress by the Syrian army. Moscow has also accused Washington and London of using the issue to sabotage Russia’s efforts to find a political solution to the crisis ravaging the Arab country.

DilyanaGaytandzhieva is a Bulgarian investigative journalist and Middle East Correspondent. Over the last two years she has published a series of revealed reports on weapons smuggling. In the past year she came under pressure from the Bulgarian National Security Agency and was fired from her job in the Bulgarian newspaper Trud Daily without explanation. Despite this, Dilyana continues her investigations. Her current report provides an overview of Pentagon’s vigour in the development of biological weapons.

The US Army regularly produces deadly viruses, bacteria and toxins in direct violation of the UN Convention on the prohibition of Biological Weapons. Read more.

A new study from advocacy group Tax Justice Network reveals that Switzerland is the world’s most-corrupt country, with a “high secrecy score of 76.” It’s followed by the US and the Cayman Islands.

“Switzerland is the grandfather of the world’s tax havens, one of the world’s largest offshore financial centers, and one of the world’s biggest secrecy jurisdictions or tax havens,” said the group’s report ‘Financial Secrecy Index — 2018 Results’. Read more.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average has tumbled by 1,175 points at the closing bell — its largest drop in points for a single day.

In percentage terms, that was a steep drop of 4.6 per cent, taking it down to 24,346 points.
At its worst, the Dow fell by more than 1,500 points overnight.
When last Friday's results are included, the blue-chip index has plunged by more than 1,800 points in two days — erasing all its 2018 gains. Read more.

Lloyds joins U.S. banks in prohibiting purchases with cards Value of the biggest cryptocurrency drops by as much as $1,990.

Bitcoin tumbled for a fifth day, dropping below $7,000 for the first time since November and leading other digital tokens lower, as a backlash by banks and government regulators against the speculative frenzy that drove cryptocurrencies to dizzying heights last year picks up steam. Read more + video.